Posted on 03/19/2013 3:20:28 AM PDT by Freelance Warrior
Ten years ago, U.S. air, sea, and land forces attacked Iraq.
So, how now does the ledger read, 10 years on?
Of the three goals of the war, none was achieved. No weapon of mass destruction was found. While Saddam and his sons paid for their sins, they had had nothing at all to do with 9/11. Nothing. That had all been mendacious propaganda.
Where there had been no al-Qaida in Iraq while Saddam ruled, al-Qaida is crawling all over Iraq now. Where Iraq had been an Arab Sunni bulwark confronting Iran in 2003, a decade later, Iraq is tilting away from the Sunni camp toward the Shia crescent of Iran and Hezbollah.
What was the cost in blood and treasure of our Mesopotamian misadventure? Four thousand five hundred U.S. dead, 35,000 wounded and this summary of war costs from Friday’s Wall Street Journal:
“The decade-long [Iraq] effort cost $1.7 trillion, according to a study … by the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. Fighting over the past 10 years has killed 134,000 Iraqi civilians … . Meanwhile, the nearly $500 billion in unpaid benefits to U.S. veterans of the Iraq war could balloon to $6 trillion” over the next 40 years.
Iraq made a major contribution to the bankrupting of America.
What makes the question more than academic is that the tub-thumpers for war on Iraq a decade ago are now clamoring for war on Iran. Goal: Strip Iran of weapons of mass destruction all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies say Iran does not have and has no program to build.
This generation is eyewitness to how a Great Power declines and falls. And to borrow from old King Pyrrhus, one more such victory as Iraq, and we are undone.
(Excerpt) Read more at theamericanconservative.com ...
What BS.
Saddam’s WMD went to Syria.
what an idiot
I am ashamed I worked on his campaign for pres for a while
and YES, it DID bring out the racists and anti-semites for Buchanan, that is why I quit it
Nothing wrong about the mission in Iraq. It was the right thing to do.
The problem was that this nation caved without making a sincere effort to win. Since World War II, we have entered into conflict without a clear plan or strategy for victory. This is because politicians, not the military, have controlled the war effort. Our brave soldiers are killed or wounded in huge numbers, then the politicians abandon the effort and all those lost or damaged lives are for naught.
If we could stop the politicians from meddling and let our military do its job, maybe we could actually win.
If you want the inside of what really happened: Read this!
http://babylonscovertwar.com/index.html
It’s all detailed inside - how everything went down - what we didn’t know and what we learned and what worked over there...before we pulled out...these news reporters where not embedded like I was - don’t have the first clue of what transpired over there - no general or battle space commander wanted to realize the under-effort of the enemy...it’s all in there...
Load of crap on multiple fronts PattyO. 1. WMDs were found, over 300 unique finds. While they were small, he probably forgets the 'trucks to Syria' part of Powell's presentation. Even in December and January of this year, there were reports of Syria putting Nerve gas in their bombs. Where did they get that from? Hmmmm.. 2. While Saddam didn't directly have anything to do with 9/11, his regime was implicated in the first WTC bombing. He was also the major state sponsor of terrorism including funding and training. 3. Only people like PattyO make this claim. Tell the lie often enough I guess. Direct 9/11 involvement was not used at all in the justification. Instead, only indirect in that showing what unchecked sponsorship of terrorism will lead to. With PattyO pushing these Mother Jones/DU type talking points, what's the point of giving anything he says a second thought?
The single goal of the war was removing the Hussein tribe from power, and that was achieved in the first six weeks. But the Hussein tribe had gone into hiding and there was a real possibility that if we left, the Husseins would return to power and pick up right where they left off. So we had to stick around long enough to find the b@stards.
By the time we did that, a phenomenon called "mission creep" had set in. Pat Buchanan gets a lot of things right and a few things very, very wrong. This is an example of the latter.
Defense spending is a drop in the bucket compared to redistribution.
And to previous posters, thanks for bringing up the Russian convoys to Syria and the 300 wmds found. But let's not forget about the centrifuge under the rose garden.
Iraq was not implicated in 9/11 before the war and it was never implied that a purpose of going to Iraq was to prove they did did play a role. What a jerk.
Anyone supporting Buchanan and his pack of blatant lies needs to hang their heads in shame.
This can’t be: the Bush administration said we were winning their hearts and minds by massive spending of American taxpayer dollars on roads, schools, hospitals, water treatment plants, etc., etc., etc.
You mean all we got was a lousy t-shirt that says “I spent all my money in Iraq” and another middle eastern hellhole filled with barbarians?
title sounds like a case of the runs.
The invasion of Iraq was legitimate. We should had gotten out in May of ‘03 after “Mission Accomplished” speech. Let the Ba’athist Army take over and that would had prevented the Sunni Insurgency from taking hold.
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